Charles Carpendale, a distinguished naval officer, later had a pioneering role at the BBC. He also became a volunteer bookbinder.
26 October 1919
Carpendales came to tea. He starting for Malta on Tuesday to his ship “Benbow”.
Diary of Florence Vansittart Neale of Bisham Abbey (D/EX73/3/17/9)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 26 October, 2019
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21st Oct.
As today is “Nelson’s Day”, I gave a short address to the children of 1st Class on “Sea-Power”, showing how Britain is & has been for hundreds of years “Mistress of the Seas”, but that she has always used this power justly, allowing the true freedom of the seas to all nations, especially taking under her care the smaller nations, and keeping the seas clear of piracy and slave-trading. I also spoke of the Battle of Trafalgar, and of Nelson’s famous signal, impressing upon the scholars that England expects every one to do his duty, now, just as in Nelson’s time.
Hampstead Norreys CE School (C/EL40/2)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 21 October, 2019
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The American Commander in Chief, General John Pershing, British Admiral Doveton Sturdee and General William Birdwood were all granted honorary degrees from Cambridge after the war.
29 Barton Road
27 July ‘19
My very dear Smu
…
[Visiting Southwold, Suffolk] On Thursday 10th there came, with their crews, 2 armoured cars, which had been serving in Russia: and in the photographs sold in the shops next day, we recognised unmistakeably Mr and Mrs Image.
…
I see that I’ve only left a few inches to describe the Honorary Degrees on Wednesday 23rd – so I’ll enclose the paper I found on my seat. The figure I was most anxious to see was Admiral Sturdee. He looked like a Dean or an Archdeacon – an ecclesiastic of high degree. Just in front of me was a naval Lieutenant in uniform (with a pretty young wife) – so I appealed to him. He gave me all information quite simply – and as we rose to go, and watched Sturdee leave the Senate House, he said, “the last time I saw Sturdee was at the Falkland Islands”!! I was delighted to see a fellow who had been in that fight.
Pershing looked capable of sternness.
The u.g.s (who were all in their khaki) chaired Birdwood.
Our kindest remembrances to ye both.
Bild
Letter from John Maxwell Image to W F Smith (D/EX801/2)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 27 July, 2019
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Our diarists enjoyed the peace festivities despite poor weather.
Florence Vansittart Neale
19 July 1919
Gloomy looking morning. Rain about 12. Peace day. Festivities all over England. Grand procession of all troops. Navy & Army, [illegible], Air & WAACs & Wrens! through London. Pagets got seats [at] Admiralty. H, Edith & I to Bisham. Dinner in schools – very pretty. E & I lunch vicarage. Games & sports in Warren. Dinner to returned soldiers (49) – tea & sports for whole village. Everyone enjoyed it. Tea in schools & dancing after till 10.30. We went home after giving prizes.
[and at back of book:]
Peace day festivities everywhere. Big procession soldiers & sailors in London. In Bisham dinner for rehomed soldiers. Tea & sports for everyone. Dancing in evening. Had some rain but not bad! Meals & dancing in schools. Pagets got seats Admiralty from Mr Baddeley.
William Hallam
19th July 1919
I suppose I was tired out this week end for I didn’t wake till 10 past 8. Up, and got breakfast: Marjorie had to take her class of school children to the Theatre to the cinema part of their treat…
This afternoon it came on to rain but we all went round the town. It was the best show of decorations I’ve ever seen but the rain spoilt so much of it. A lot of people had decorated their fronts up with Chinese Lanterns to light at night and of course these were spoilt as it turned out a very wet night.
Diaries of Florence Vansittart Neale of Bisham Abbey (D/EX73/3/17/9); and William Hallam of Swindon (D/EX1415/25)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 19 July, 2019
https://berkshirevoiceswwi.wordpress.com/2019/07/19/peace-day-festivities-everywhere/
A pair of fallen brothers were remembered in Ascot.
May
The Dedication and Unveiling of the Window and Tablet in memory of Liuetenant O.W. Tottie, R.N., and 2nd Lieutenant E.H. Tottie, Northumberland Fusiliers, will take place in the Church, on Wednesday, the 14th May, at 3 o’clock.
The Rec. W.T. La Trobe Bateman, assisted by the Rector, will conduct the Service, and it is expected that representatives of the Navy and Army will be present.
All are cordially invited, and it is hoped that Sailors and Soldiers who have served in the war will come.
June
On May 14th, the Rev. W. La Trobe Bateman dedicated and unveiled the beautiful new window over the Altar in the Chapel, representing St. George, and the alabaster tablet on the wall beside it. The inscription on the latter is as follows:-
“The adjoining window is dedicated to the glory of God and in loving memory of two brothers who gave their lives for England, the one at sea, the other on land, September 22nd 1914.
“Oscar William Tottie, R.N., Lieutenant, H.M.S. Aboukir, sunk by enemy action in the North Sea. Aged 23. Eric Harold Tottie, 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, died of wounds received in action at the Battle of the Aisne. Aged 19.
“They being made perfect, in a short time fulfilled in a long time.”
The service, full of hope and triumph, was attended by a large congregation, including representatives of the Navy and Army. Buglers of the Northumberland Fusiliers sounded “The Last Post” at the West door, and were answered by the “Reveille” sounded by the buglers of the Royal Navy stationed at the East end, reminding us of the “sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to Eternal Life.
Ascot section of Winkfield District Magazine, May-June 1919 (D/P 151/28A/11/5-6)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 14 May, 2019
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Speenhamland children were apparently especially interested in the Navy.
Ap 16
The Mayor, accompanied by Mr E J Forster, came at 3.15 and a very pleasing little function took place. The Prize-winners were five in number in order as follows:
Boys: 1 George Bourne aged 11, 2 Fred Bogg aged 13
Girls: 1 Evelyn Herbert aged 13, 2 Rose Watling aged 12, 3 Hilda Curtis aged 10.
The Mayor mentioned that this was the only school in the Borough that had gained 5 prizes, and George Bourne was singled out for especial commendation.
St Mary’s CE School, Speenhamland (C/EL119/3)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 16 April, 2019
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John Maxwell Image had some interesting view on the effects of the war (some unfortunately anti-semitic).
29 Barton Road
7 April ‘19
My very dear old man
…
We have the American influx on us in full swing – u.g.s as plentiful as before the War: Navy blue and gold by the hundred: and now suddenly the Yanks. Where can all be accommodated?…
Ye take too much upon ye, ye sons of Zeruiah – that is the natural feeling as to the American air. They came in at the last hour – to receive every man a penny, and claim to boss the show.
Britain, bled to the white in men and money, cannot stand up against them. Grousing is no good. Our fighting class are killed off. Those now alive, want only panem et circences [bread and circuses]. They can‘t look beyond the day. Those who can make money, squander it: the unhappy ones with fixed incomes, and with a little saving, to tax for the proletariat’s advantage, won’t find England a fair country to live in, except for the Bolshevik. What claim to his own property will be regarded by Parliament.
Half an hour ago I was shewn Punches Almanack for 1915 – i.e. in the first 6 months of the War. It made me sad! What we expected then; and what we have sunk to. The retreat from Mons had but convinced us that we should thrash von Klack, and certainly – ; that, driven back to Germany, the Kaiser’s Army will be met by Cossacks in occupation of Berlin. No mention could I see of submarines! None of air-raids of any kind! What is more striking still, there was no hint of brutality by German soldiers, anywhere. There seemed in the country a contemptuous disdain for our German opponents. We should stamp them down, as did our fathers, and then Russia would mop them up. Poor Russia! And her German Tsaritsa – the cause of it all!
There was a curdling leader in the paper a few days ago on the Bolshevist Chiefs. Lenin, the writer who knows him [says], has brains and energy: and he is of noble birth. But Trotsky and the others – their names were all given – are one and all of them JEWS – and with the Jew characteristic of making a good thing for themselves, while others do the fighting.
It was a leader in the Times on April 1st (Tuesday). Read it. Trotsky, Zinovieff, Svendloff, Kameneff, Uritsky, Yoffe, Rodek, Litvinoff, many others – Jews one and all.
The Hon. Russell’s new book was reviewed in the Observer, did you see it? The Russell has the impertinence to pretend that Bolshevik ruthlessness is the offspring of Love! Is the man sane? or merely dishonest?
…
Your dear friend
JMI
Letter from John Maxwell Image, Cambridge don, to W F Smith (D/EX801/2)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 7 April, 2019
https://berkshirevoiceswwi.wordpress.com/2019/04/07/what-we-have-sunk-to-makes-me-sad/
The Coldstream Guards were coming home to their peacetime home in Windsor barracks.
Windsor
27th February 1919
The mayor asked that the boys and girls of the various schools might line the streets in honour of the home-coming of the Coldstream Guards. He granted all the schools a half holiday (school closed at midday in consequence).
Reading
27/02/1919
Absent by permission, having received an invitation to view the battle-ship ‘Renown’ at Portsmouth.
Log books of Windsor Royal Free Boys’ School (C/EL72/3); Coley Street Primary School Reading (89/SCH/48/4)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 27 February, 2019
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Newbury children attended a lecture on the Navy.
Newbury St Nicolas CE (Boys) School
19th February 1919
A party of boys was taken, at the suggestion of the Education Committee, to a lecture at the Picture Palace on ‘The work of the Navy in the Great War’.
Newbury St Nicolas CE (Girls) School
28th February 1919
On the afternoon of Feb. 19th the upper classes attended an illustrated lecture on ‘The Navy’, at the Picture Palace.
Newbury St Nicolas CE (Boys) School log book (90/SCH/5/3, p. 48); Newbury St Nicolas CE (Girls) School log look(90/SCH/5/5, p. 244)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 19 February, 2019
https://berkshirevoiceswwi.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/the-work-of-the-navy-in-the-great-war/
em>You may remember that Mrs Thornton had been absent since the 12th, due to the return home of her soldier husband. This was causing difficulties for her colleagues.
Sunninghill
18th February 1919
Mrs Thornton is still absent, & as a consequence 4 teachers are managing 5 rooms, & each teacher has charge of 2 classes – an instance of overwork of which we have had much undesirable experience of this school.
Speenhamland
Feb 18th
About 120 children of the Upper Standard attend a Lecture at the Picture Palace on the Navy; they will be required to write an Essay on what they see and hear and prizes will be given for the best.
Receipt for £1.1.0 received from the Organiser of the King’s Fund for the Disabled.
Ascot
February 18th 1919
Through lack of coal great difficulty is being experienced in keeping the rooms warm enough for the boys to work in any degree of comfort.
Log books of St Michael’s CE Mixed School, Sunninghill (88/SCH/32/3); St Mary’s CE School, Speenhamland (C/EL119/3); Ascot Heath Boys’ School (C/EL110/4
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 18 February, 2019
https://berkshirevoiceswwi.wordpress.com/2019/02/18/a-lecture-at-the-picture-palace-on-the-navy/
The hard work of women from Newbury and Speen during the war is reviewed.
RED CROSS WORKING PARTY
The Parish Red Cross Working Party, under the superintendence of Mrs L Majendie, was started by her at the Rectory, Newbury, on May 1st, 1915.
The first meeting was hastily summoned for the purpose of making respirators, but as it was found these were not required, being provided by the War Office, work for hospitals and other objects was substituted.
Mrs Majendie carried on the meetings at more or less regular intervals from a fortnight to three weeks, with suspension of these generally during Lent.
She was assisted, first by Miss Boldero (who also held a number of supplementary meetings for mending for Newbury District Hospital), and later by Mrs and Miss Majendie, Speen.
The number of names on the books was between 50 and 60, and of these over 30 attended regularly from the first meeting, May 1st, 1915, to the last, February 18th, 1919. Thanks are due to all the members, but more especially to these last, also to the various hostesses who provided tea, and lent their houses for meetings (many more would have been glad to do this, if lack of space had not forbidden it).
The hostesses were Mrs L Majendie, Miss Boldero, Mrs A Majendie and Miss D Majendie, Miss Godding, Mrs Gould, Mrs Hawker, Mrs Porter, Mrs Camp, Mrs O’Farrell, Mrs Colbourne, amd Miss Bellinger. Some entertained at their own houses, some at the Conservative Club, and a large number of meetings were held at the Parish Room.
Some members have left Newbury, including several Belgian ladies, who worked regularly for a time.
The objects worked for were very numerous, 24 in all, and included the following:
1. Reading War Hospital, twice.
2. Newbury District Hospital, 9 times.
3. Newbury War Depot, 6 times.
4. Miss Power’s Hospital, once.
5. General Hospital No. 18, France (to Miss Hayne), once.
6. The Minesweeper Newbury, 7 times.
7. HMS Conquest (to Lieut. Burgess), once.
8. Submarine F3 (to Lieut. Burgess, once).
9. The Navy League, 3 times.
10. Dr Heywood’s Hospital, Malta, once.
11. Malta and Near East Special Red Cross Appeal, once.
12. Dr Heywood’s Hospital, Rouen, twice.
13. Dr Heywood’s Hospital, Stationary, No. 3, France, 12 times. Extra parcels were often sent to Dr Heywood’s Hospital at other times.
14. Ripon Camp Hospital (Dr Mackay), twice.
15. French Red Cross, twice.
16. French War Emergency Fund, 11 times.
17. National Committee for Relief in Belgium and Northern France, twice.
18. Belgian Red Cross, once.
19. Italian White Cross, twice.
20. Russian Prisoners of War, once.
21. Serbian Relief Fund, 7 times.
22. Syria and Palestine Relief Fund, 5 times.
23. Air Raid victims in London, once.
24. Soldiers’ Children Aid Committee, twice.
Making 73 meetings in all.
The many grateful letters received are too numerous to quote, but each one showed clearly how much the recipients appreciated the parcels of well made clothing despatched from Newbury. Not only were new clothes sent, but many gifts of garments slightly worn, but in good condition were also sent to various Societies. These were received with special thankfulness for the many refugees in France, Belgium, and Serbia, and as the work of repatriation in some of these terribly devastated regions will have to be carried on for months to come, parcels might still be forwarded from time to time if members cared to collect for them.
Thanks are specially due to those members who were kind enough to continually lend their sewing machines for ten meetings, and to several who undertook from time to time cutting-out at home.
The sum of £92 7s 8d was collected in donations and subscriptions, and was expended in flannel, flannelette, linen, twill, sheeting, muslin, gauze, lint, and cotton wool, which were all worked up into about 2,653 different articles, comprising, roughly speaking, the following:
735 treasure bags, 386 bandages, 376 miscellaneous things (such as washers, dusters, hot water bottle covers, table napkins, etc), 253 children’s garments, 210 men’s shirts, 177 knitted articles (socks, helmets, mufflers, operation stockings, etc), 128 collars and ties for hospital wear, 108 men’s vests and other underclothing, 106 women’s underclothing and blouses, 86 towels, 68 pillow cases and sheets, 20 pair steering gloves (leather palms): total 2,653.
The pleasant fellowship in which the members worked so untiringly through many months of anxiety and trouble for the alleviation of the sufferings of others, may well have strengthened not only parochial and personal ties, but also many wider ones with those they were privileged to help.
Newbury parish magazine, April 1919 (D/P89/28A/14)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 18 February, 2019
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Fuel was still in short supply, as the universities got a sudden influx of new students, many of them men who had served in the armed forces.
29 Barton Road
25 January ‘19
My dearest old CMY
…
We can’t get coal enough to keep the flame of life within our veins – though we are eking our fuel out with blocks of wood – 30/- for 300! – and even with the fire in my little study (you remember it?) I go about with Florrie’s Shetland shawl – I gave it her when she was Miss Spencer – wrapped round my senile shoulders. And we cannot afford fire in the study more than twice a week. Half of our whole coal ration has already been used.
…
The streets are filled with Caps and Gowns – all new. The wearers of course are all freshmen. When last, say, 3 years back, Cambridge saw u.g.s, not a soul wore academical dress, except to lecture. Now they are vain of it. How they will manage at Trinity I wonder. The Cadets have left the New Court Rooms in a dirty confusion, and the upholsterers cannot supply furniture of beds, chairs, tables, etc. Many mammas seem to be importing furniture from home to their hopefuls. Lawrence, Junior Bursar, is driven out of his senses. Then in Master’s Courts are 400 Naval Lieutenants and Sub-lieutenants. The gold lace of their uniforms quite cuts out the military khaki. So I hear ladies say. It glitters over the streets all day. Naval men refuse Oxford, which doubtless knows neither Math nor Science.
But did you notice the slight cast here by the Army? I boil!
Our dear love, Florence’s and mine, to you both.
Ever affec
Bild
Letter from John Maxwell Image, Cambridge don, to W F Smith (D/EX801/2)
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 25 January, 2019
https://berkshirevoiceswwi.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/we-cant-get-coal-enough-to-keep-the-flame-of-life-within-our-veins/
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Berkshire at War 